What It Was Like to Be a 90s Kid In Russia – Part II Posted by Maria on Nov 6, 2014 in History
Earlier this week we talked about growing up in Russia in the nineties. Many of you brought up things you remembered from your childhood in Russia or in other countries. It is always fascinating to see what things transcended borders and what things were more regional. Let us continue this week.
Chewing Gum with Stickers/Inserts
One thing children liked buying was chewing gum (жевательная резинка, colloquially known as жвачка — not жевачка). It was not as much about the gum as about the other things you could find in the wrapping. Some brands of gum had stickers (наклейки) or inserts (вкладыши) that kids collected and traded. One particularly popular brand is the Love Is gum. This Turkish gum had cartoon inserts of the New Zealand Love Is cartoon.
Slinkies
Rainbow-colored slinkies (пружинки) were all the rage in the nineties. For those of you who may not be familiar (which I would find hard to believe), these were pretty much coils of flexible plastic stacked together that you could shift between your hands or off the stairs for visual effects.
Slime
Another toy that was a fad when I was young is slime (лизун). It was pretty much a ball of gooey material that you could throw at the wall and watch it slowly crawl down from it. These toys got dirty really quickly as dust and other dirt tended to stick to them. It is thought that the Russian name comes from the Ghostbusters (Охотники за привидениями) character Slimer (Лизун).
Elastic Rope Games
Jumping rope (скакалка) was and still is popular in Russia. However, what I’m describing here is different. Can you imagine waistband elastic (резинка), the stretchy narrow strip that goes, for example, in your underwear? Well, apart from sewing clothes is served an important purpose as a (mostly girls’) plaything.
The game was called играть в резиночку. I am told it is not known in the US. Perhaps it is known somewhere else? You need at least 3 people to play. A long stretch of elastic is tied into a loop. Two players are “posts” (столбики). They stand facing each other with their feet shoulder width apart (ноги на ширине плеч) so that the rope is tight. The other players take turns doing specially designated moves with their feet on the rope. Whoever makes and error or trips trades places with the post. Oh, the rope keeps rising, too. It may be easier to understand if you watch it.
Do any of these bring any memories from your childhood?
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Comments:
David Roberts:
This word “лизун” is interesting. I know слизняк is a slug, and слизь is another word for slime. I’ve aways assumed these are related to the english words sleaze and sleazy. But now I’ve seen лизун, I’m wondering if лиз or лизь is the basic root and the с in слизняк and слизь was originally a suffix (meaning with) has become added. Which raises the question of where does the s in sleaze come from?!
Maria:
@David Roberts David, I see how the с- prefix would trick one into thinking that. However, лизать is actually a cognate of the English “lick” (incidentally, also its translation) and Latin lingo.
Erik M.:
A game very similar to this игра в резиночку was played in my part of the US (Minneapolis) in the late 1970s/early 1980s. We called it “Chinese jump rope,” though I’m not sure why. The комбинации were similar, but I remember one player having to do a whole routine that went “in, out, side by side, on, off, swivel” instead of one move at a time.
Monika H.:
Thank you for this interesting post, Maria! Спасибо! 🙂
I’m a German from Germany and I’m currently studying Russian by my own. Your blog is very helpful! I was born in the 90s in Germany and this jumping rope was part of my childhood. When jumping from the left to the middle to the right and then outside the twist we were saying “Seite, Seite, Mitte, Breite – Seite, Seite, Mitte, Raus”.
Maria:
@Monika H. Пожалуйста, Monika!
It’s interesting to know that Germany had a similar game. I wonder if other countries did, too.